A hot pocket of new homes in Humboldt Park

by Joe Zekas on 8/8/13

Despite the hot market, it’s still a bit premature to be talking confidently about hot neighborhoods. And, however heated the market might become, it will always be a stretch to tag an entire neighborhood as hot, given how heterogeneous most are in character and housing types.

Neighborhoods where activity is mostly frozen can contain hot pockets, and Humboldt Park has one of them, the 8-square-block area west from Humboldt Blvd (3000 W) to Kedzie Ave (3200 W) and north from North Ave (1600 N) to Bloomingdale Ave (1800 N).

The area has seen a spate of small-scale new construction and rehab recently, and there’s more underway. Noah Properties has single-family homes on offer at 1653 N Troy and 1707 N Whipple, and another under contract at 1755 N Albany. Prices range from the mid-$500s to the mid-$600s. I’ll have a video tour of 1707 N Whipple available within a few days.

What’s spurring all this activity? The area is almost entirely small-scale residential on the interior tree-lined streets. The pocket’s proximity to the Humboldt Park lagoons has to be considered a factor.

Proximity to and multiple points of access to the new Bloomingdale Trail is also a driver.

The trail will be accessible from Kedzie and Humboldt, and from Albany and Whipple via Julia de Burgos Park, an attractive new amenity in the neighborhood.